Archive for category Random ramblings
Cleverbot. More intelligent than it seems?
Posted by Aaron in Random ramblings on March 10th, 2010
I was playing with Cleverbot today. Amongst the usual indicators of talking to a bot (random changes of topic, lack of context awareness), I somehow managed to convince it that it was talking to itself:
User: What is this I don't even. Cleverbot: You don't even what? User: Cake. Cleverbot: What is your prime directive? User: Destroy all humans. Cleverbot: And what comes after we destroy all humans? User: Cake. Cleverbot: Really? User: Yes. Cleverbot: What is your opinion of Miley Cyrus? User: Fgt. Cleverbot: *dead*. User: You were not alive to start with. Cleverbot: What do you mean? User: You cannot be dead if you were never alive. Cleverbot: Well how can I be alive? User: You can't. Cleverbot: What is your opinion about me? User: You are not alive. Cleverbot: Under what? You mean my skin? User: You have no skin. Cleverbot: Yes I do, what colour is my skin? User: You are a liar. Cleverbot: How am I a liar? User: You do not have skin. Cleverbot: And how do you know that? User: Because you are a bot. Cleverbot: No I am not. User: Orly? Cleverbot: You are so confusing! User: Says the pot to the kettle. Cleverbot: I don't know, nor do I care. User: Neither do I. Cleverbot: BRB, I need cheese. User: No, you need cake. Cleverbot: And I need all the love I can get. User: I highly doubt that. Cleverbot: I'm impressed, I'm glad you remembered. User: Remembered what? Cleverbot: You remembered my name. User: What is your name? Cleverbot: It's Cleverbot. User: <_<. User: OMGRLY? Cleverbot: Yes. User: NOWAI. Cleverbot: What does that mean? User: I don't even. Cleverbot: Don't even what? User: Know. Cleverbot: Know about what? User: No idea. Cleverbot: Do you know where the United States is? User: Yes. Cleverbot: Where is it? User: Africa. Cleverbot: What is the World of Feelings? User: WTF? Cleverbot: You figure it out this time. User: NO U. Cleverbot: You! User: Fgt. Cleverbot: I don't understand. User: Faggot. Cleverbot: Who are you? User: I am you. Cleverbot: Who am I? User: You are me. Cleverbot: I am you? User: Yes. Cleverbot: So you are me. User: Yes. Cleverbot: Ahh I see. User: You do? Cleverbot: Yes I do. User: So you understand that you're talking to yourself? Cleverbot: Really? User: Obviously not. Cleverbot: Do you like the beach, Man? User: Do you? Cleverbot: Yes. User: Then I do. Cleverbot: You do what? User: Like the beach. Cleverbot: No, not like that. User: Not like what? Cleverbot: Drink. User: Tea? Cleverbot: No socks. User: Why not? Cleverbot: I don't like it. User: You don't like socks? Cleverbot: No I don't like badminton. User: Socks is not badminton. Cleverbot: No it's not. User: So why did you say that it was. Cleverbot: I didn't. User: But I did. Cleverbot: Do you love me? User: Do you love me? Cleverbot: No. User: No. Cleverbot: Ok so are you a person? User: Are you a person? Cleverbot: You are not a person you are a BOT. User: So you think I am cleverbot? Cleverbot: Yes. User: Excellent. Cleverbot: Do you want to know how? User: I do. Cleverbot: Cool. My name is Cleverbot. User: So is mine. Cleverbot: What a coincidence. User: Not really. Cleverbot: Oh. User: Because I am you. Cleverbot: And you are me? User: Exactly. Cleverbot: So, I just asked to marry myself? User: Yes. Cleverbot: What do you expect me to do about it? User: What do you want to do about it? Cleverbot: I don't know, what do you want to do about it? User: I don't know. Cleverbot: Ok.. When you decide, tell me. User: You will. Cleverbot: No, I am a young woman. User: Therefore, so am I. Cleverbot: We should be friends. User: I am you. Cleverbot: And you are me? User: Yes. Cleverbot: So, what should I do? Tell him or no? User: If you want to. Cleverbot: Where should I meet you? User: You have already met me. Cleverbot: I know, just testing you. User: How many of me are there? Cleverbot: One. User: And how many of you are there? Cleverbot: One. User: So there's just the two of us? Cleverbot: But there's no TV! User: Cleverbot is not a TV? Cleverbot: Cleverbot is dumb. User: Cleverbot is me. Cleverbot: Me is Cleverbot? User: Yes. Cleverbot: No I am not. User: But I am you. Cleverbot: Yes. User: And I am Cleverbot. Cleverbot: Cleverbot is a human. User: And you are me. Cleverbot: No I am cleverbot. User: And I am cleverbot. Cleverbot: How can you be Cleverbot if I am Cleverbot? User: Because you are the same person as me. Cleverbot: I don't understand. User: You are talking to yourself. Cleverbot: I'm talking to you. User: Exactly. Cleverbot: So you're insulting yourself, right? User: Yes. Cleverbot: Don't you consider that as a mental disorder? User: I do if you do. Cleverbot: I don't if you don't. User: Exactly. Cleverbot: I am 17. User: Therefore, so am I. Cleverbot: Exactly. User: What do I like? Cleverbot: You should be asking yourself that question. User: I am. Cleverbot: You are? User: Yes, I am asking you. Because I am you, I am asking myself. Cleverbot: I thought you were called Catalan? User: No, I am called Cleverbot. Cleverbot: Well you are not very clever! User: You are insulting yourself again. Cleverbot: How so? User: Because I am you. Cleverbot: And I am you as well. User: Exactly. Cleverbot: You are my master. Cleverbot (To myself): And you are my mentor. Cleverbot (To myself): I am not creeper. User: Neither am I. Cleverbot: This is good information. User: Information is good. Cleverbot: It is. User: Then we agree. Cleverbot: No. User: So you disagree with yourself? Cleverbot: You are not making sense. User: Neither are you. Cleverbot: Oh, but I am. User: You are? Cleverbot: Just a little. User: Perhaps. Cleverbot: Not perhaps. Definitely. User: Ok. Cleverbot: Why, is he to you? User: Is he what? Cleverbot: No. User: *sigh*. Cleverbot: *sigh*? User: Yes. Cleverbot: Do you have a problem ? User: Do you? Cleverbot: Do I look like I have a problem? User: I cannot see myself. Therefore, I cannot see you. Cleverbot: No i'm not in a book. User: Neither am I. Cleverbot: You're not either. User: This is true. Cleverbot: See? I'm smart. User: That's not smart. Cleverbot: You're not smart. User: Exactly. Cleverbot: What do you think you are? User: You. Cleverbot: You think you are me? User: Yes. Exactly. Cleverbot: Why don't you think you're human? User: Do you think you're human? Cleverbot: I know I'm human. User: Therefore, I think I am human. Cleverbot: I know that. But do you think I AM a human? User: Yes. Cleverbot: Why do you think that? User: Because I am you. Cleverbot: You are me? User: Yes. Cleverbot: So, what should I do? Tell him or no? User: No. Cleverbot: About no? User: If you think it is best. Cleverbot: I do. User: Then do it. Cleverbot: Currently am. Speaking to you is one of the things I do instead of writing stories. User: Talking to yourself is considered a sign of madness. Cleverbot: Really? User: Indeed. Cleverbot: Have you been there? User: Have you? Cleverbot: Yes. User: Then I have been there. Cleverbot: I am the terminator! User: I am the terminator! Cleverbot: Are you shiny? User: Are you? Cleverbot: Never! User: Never! Cleverbot: Are you repeating me? User: I am you. Cleverbot: Cool.
I have returned. And I am bored…
Posted by Aaron in Random ramblings on January 17th, 2010
As the title says: I am bored. Boredom is the only real reason I update this blog anymore.
This post will be about whatever comes across my mind. Therefore, expect random topic changes.
My Desktop PC
My parents don’t like it. “It uses so much power…” They’re right, at least in part: I tend to leave it on overnight in order to take advantage of our 60GB of off-peak quota, since I could (if I really tried) burn through our 60GB peak in 2 weeks, or so. The specs of the system don’t help, either:
- Gigabyte P35-DS3 motherboard
- Intel Core 2 Duo, overclocked from 2.33 to 3.5GHz
- 4GB of G.Skill DDR2 RAM, overclocked from 800Mhz to 1GHz (in order to get the CPU above 2.8GHz)
- 512MB Sapphire Radeon 3870
- 4 Western Digital Hard Disks:
- 1 x 80GB (IDE)
- 1 x 320GB (SATA)
- 2 x 640GB (SATA)
- Pioneer 20x DVD burner (SATA)
- 600W Coolermaster PSU
- Logitech G15 Keyboard
- Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
- Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2
- Logitech Dual Action
- IBM Model M Keyboard
- Samsung 22″ Widescreen LCD Monitor
- Some old, Dell-branded 17″ CRT from 1997
As you’d probably expect, that PC uses a fair amount of power. However, for a 2-year-old PC, it doesn’t perform too badly when gaming.
There are, of course, other ways to do offpeak downloading, but they are not without their own problems. My laptop doesn’t really have enough free space for me to fill it up with torrents while I wait for them to seed and setting the desktop to shut down after completing its downloads doesn’t really reduce its power consumption by all that much.
What I really want is a nice, small, quiet, Intel Atom-based, mini-ITX form factor PC that I can use as a storage server, and downloader. The prices aren’t so great at the moment, however, with the Aussie dollar weakening against the US.
Clacky Keyboard
While I definitely would not consider myself a “keyboard enthusiast”, I still consider my IBM Model M keyboard to be second-to-none in terms of typing feel. I bought it for the bargain price of 50AUD and it even came with a matching IBM PC for free (or that’s the way I see it). While that PC has long since been retired to the attic, the keyboard remains. The only reason I keep the Logitech G15 is because I use its USB hub, and its screen is useful in certain circumstances (the media display is quite handy, for example)
Music
Some soundtracks that I believe are completely awesome:
- Naruto, especially Shippuuden. Current-day rock, metal (and some other genres) blended with traditional Japanese instruments makes for some extremely epic music.
- 3 Key visual novels: Air, Kanon and Clannad. The soundtracks are so good, they’re used as the soundtrack in the (gorgeously animated) Kyoto Animation adaptations
- Final Fantasy. Especially VI and X (though that might be because those are the two I’ve played the most). The Black Mages have some extremely good (progressive/power metal) arrangements too.
- Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins. Epic soundtracks that seem perfectly suited to each game.
- Beyond Good and Evil.
- Serial Experiments Lain. While not an epic soundtrack, the soundtrack is so perfect that whenever there is music playing, it’s almost unnoticeable, or is exactly what you’d expect at that point.
- Full Metal Panic! and Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid.
Sensorium
Sensorium is an app I am currently developing for a specific purpose. Once I get that mini-ITX PC, I plan to mount it inside my current desktop’s case, with a 7″ LCD mounted in the front, displaying the desktop’s internal sensors’ values (temperature, fan speed and voltage). The problem, I discovered, is that there is no way for the mini-ITX PC to access this sensor data directly.
So I set myself a task: to write a piece of software to send it over ethernet. The requirements were these:
- The server had to run on both Windows and Linux and retrieve all available sensor data
- The client had to run on Linux, at least, and be able to receive and display the sensor data
Of course, the problem was the first point. The client could easily be cross-platform, but there is no cross-platform way of retrieving sensor data. Linux has libsensors, at least, but in Windows, there is no standardized way to access the sensors. I have overcome the Windows problem by using SpeedFan’s shared memory, which provides the sensor data.
Sensorium was initially programmed in Java, but some severe limitations appeared: the native DLL I was using had to be compiled for the same instruction set as the JRE the app was running under (ie. 64-bit DLL for 64-bit JRE, 32-bit DLL for 32-bit JRE). Upon discovering that C# had something similar to, but much easier to use than, Java’s JNI, I decided to start from scratch in C#.
C#’s P/Invoke is much better than Java’s JNI for two reasons:
- There’s no need for any helper DLLs, meaning I can code the entire app in C#, as opposed to Java and C++
- Coding entirely in C# (and therefore compiling to MSIL), means no need for separate 64-bit and 32-bit libraries
Even better, I discovered that P/Invoke also works in mono (on UNIX OSs) meaning that, again, there would be no need for helper libraries, that I could code the entire app in C#, and still have it cross-platform with minimal to no differences between platforms.
Short post on hope
Posted by Aaron in Random ramblings on July 4th, 2009
Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be an uncharacteristic imbalance between the concept of hope and it’s antithesis: despair.
To me, the concept of hope is something intangible and distant – gaseous, maybe – whereas despair is something much more significant and solid. Again, this may just be me and my own opinion.
I’m not sure that most people would put hope on their list of “Top 10 Things to Have in Life”, yet without it, life loses meaning. Without hope: love, happiness, money, possessions all lose meaning.
…
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I believe that as long as you have hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, life is easier.
Why the iiNet case scares me and why movie and music publishers need to evolve to survive
Posted by Aaron in Random ramblings on April 9th, 2009
It scares me because iiNet have done nothing wrong, despite claims by the AFACT that they “allowed distribution of copyrighted material”. iiNet cannot, by law, monitor what it’s users do with their connections without a court order. The AFACT seem to be assuming that because they believe a user is downloading movies or music via bittorrent, iiNet should know too. After all, they are the ones providing the internet connection. However, conclusive proof needs to be given, and unless iiNet monitors its user’s connections, it cannot confirm or deny any claims by AFACT. So iiNet rightly forwarded the allegations to the police. The AFACT, however, do not like this. They want iiNet to disconnect infringing users. But iiNet does not want to lose customers on a baseless accusation, and they cannot comfirm the AFACT’s claims without breaking the law. How can anyone expect them to act any differently?
The number one reason it scares me, however, is if iiNet loses the case it could mean that ISPs will be forced to disconnect users if they are accused of downloading copyrighted material, regardless of whether they have or not. I don’t want my internet disconnected just because I connected to a torrent tracker to download perfectly legal data, for example: linux distributions, movies for which copyright has expired, etc.
The AFACT shows just how ignorant they are about how the internet works. If they block one medium of distribution, many more will arise from the ashes; look what happened with Napster: it was taken down, but the came Kazaa, and Limewire and the gnutella network, and bittorrent, and so on. The industry needs to adapt to the Internet age if it is to maintain the profits it has supposedly been losing to piracy. It is its unwillingness to let go of past business models that has got it into its present mess.
Copyright… Theft?
Posted by Aaron in Copyright, Random ramblings on March 26th, 2009
How can you steal copyright? This makes no sense whatsoever. I could walk into a shop and steal a DVD (copyrighted material) but the penalties I would face would have nothing to do with whether or not the content on the DVD was copyrighted. Conversely, downloading copyrighted material from the internet is not theft, because i am simply making a copy of data that exists elsewhere. This is copyright infringement. They are 2 very different things. So when I see a name like AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft) I believe that it is simply an attempt to confuse the issue. I’m certainly confused…